by Andrew
Sunday was a big day for us. In the morning, we drove to Kenilworth Castle to pick up our English Heritage membership card which gives us free or discounted access to many sites across the country, but notably Stonehenge and Battle.
Sunday was a big day for us. In the morning, we drove to Kenilworth Castle to pick up our English Heritage membership card which gives us free or discounted access to many sites across the country, but notably Stonehenge and Battle.
Kenilworth Castle was amazing, quite possibly the best thing we saw on our whole trip to Cheltenham. It’s a ruined castle, partly destroyed to keep it from falling into enemy hands during the civil war in the 17th century. It had a haunting beauty. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester built a whole annex for Queen Elizabeth, so she could come visit. And, she did. For 19 days. It gives you some sense of the enormous wealth these folks had.
From Kenilworth, because we were so close, we went to visit the University of Warwick to see where Lija had spent her senior year of college year. Being August, much of the university was closed down, but fortunately, the Airport Bar where Lija worked, now called the Fusion Bar, was open and we had lunch there and, of course, some beer. We also further prepped the kids for college by playing foosball and ping pong. Now they’re ready!
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| Many long, but happy, hours were spent right here |
Next stop Warwick Castle. If Kenilworth Castle is solitary, beautiful, and haunting, Warwick Castle was Disney World (or like the MN Renaissance Festival would be if held at a real castle). It was a 20 minute walk from the car park (i.e. field) to the main gate, past the "Mediaeval Glamping Village" (no joke). The place was packed. In all fairness to them, there was a lot to do: watch jousting, dungeon tour, tour the main house, the battlements, bird of prey bird show, and watch them fire a trebuchet.
The house was beautiful, but, as Lija remarked, it resembled every castle from Scooby Doo. There were axes and spears on the walls, dark wood, suits of armor, crests, etc. There was also the famous porridge pot, a 100+ gallon bronze vessel used for serving alcohol at parties since 1695. We were there for 3 hours and saw everything on our list including the firing of the trebuchet. At 18m tall and weighing more than 22 tons, it’s the largest working trebuchet in world. We saw it fling a boulder 300m, skip ahead to the 50 second mark for the excitement: Warwick Castle Trebuchet
On our way out we passed through a peacock garden and saw at least 6 male peacocks. They were beautiful and we each wanted to build our own peacock garden until the peacocks opened their mouths. I am sure they will be very happy staying in Warwick.
Because we were so close and I had never been, we did a drive by Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon. It was raining, so I got out alone, got my selfie, and we were off.
A long but very fun day.
G’nite!
No glamping for the Greenseids? What kind of adventure is that?
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